What could be inside?
by CaskettCoffeeAlways
Summary: Alternative ending to 13x19.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: First, I always hated that scene in 13x19 where Meredith cancels on Riggs because I think they should be more understanding of each other. Nathan should accept that she has to take care of her sister, and Meredith needs to understand that of course he will be disappointed by her canceling. I don't know... I always just felt like they were rude too to each other in that scene. So yeah, this is an alternative version of 13x19 hence the lame wordplay of this fanfic using the title of the episode "What's inside?".**

 _"_ _She's not fine, she's a mess."_

"Ok..." He honestly thought that Meredith, once again, was using Maggie as an excuse to not go out with him. She had probably just changed her mind. He was getting tired of her excuses.

"You're mad." She judged from his facial expression.

"No, I'm not mad, I'm..." At first he couldn't figure out what to say, but then he found the right word "...I'm just disappointed." He crossed his arms.

"I know that it may seem like I'm always using her as an excuse, but I'm not... Or at least not this time..." She saw that he didn't believe what she was saying, so she tried to be more straight forward. "Are you free tomorrow?"

"You're not going to cancel on me?" He asked, because he really doubted that she wouldn't cancel on him.

"I'll do my best not to." She said with a smile since she knew that her promises weren't worth much at this point.

"Not very promising, but ok, we can reschedule for tomorrow. Just remember that a guy can only handle a certain number of rejections before he gives up."

"You're not going anywhere." She said with her famous sparkly eyes.

"I might." He said and stepped closer to her.

"Then I better remind you what you'll be missing out on." She said and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her closer. "Yeah? What exactly is that?" He said and she closed the distance between them by placing her lips on his. He gently pushed her body against the door without making any noise. He knew one thing for sure, he did not want her sisters to interupt this moment. She deepend the kiss and ran her hands through his hair. His hands were all over her body. He placed a few kissed on her neck as he whispered "You look absolutely stunning" into her ear. He pulled away, she looked disappointed. "You should probably get back to your sisters." He said and used one hand to cup her face.

"Right..." She said and leaned in for a quick and sweet kiss.

"I'll see you on our date tomorrow." He said and let her go.

"Drinks, not a date." She replied.

"Keep telling yourself that." He said with a wink as he turned and left.

Meredith just stood there watching him leave. She was still leaning against the door and she had a huge smile on her face. But then she remembered Maggie. She had broken her promise to herself to not let things get any further with him until she had told Maggie. She went inside slightly annoyed with herself, but also with a warm feeling inside. She liked him more than she intended to.

 **AN: Let me know what you think, I'm up for continuing this if you continue reading. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Sorry for the late update... I've been really busy.**

When Meredith came inside she saw her sisters on the couch. Maggie had fallen asleep on Amelias shoulder.

"Was it him?" Amelia asked whispering to avoid waking up Maggie. She knew that Meredith had a date, judging from Meredith's outfit.

Meredith nodded as she was standing and leaning against the wall facing Amelia. She was done with denying it.

"Who is he? Do I know him?" Amelia was curious about this guy.

Meredith didn't answer, she was worried that Maggie would wake up and hear something..

"Come on Mer, give me some details. You can talk to me." Amelia said.

"I can't." Meredith replied and crossed her arms.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise." Amelia was more curious over this that she usually was.

"Maybe later. Are you hungry?" Meredith said, because she actually wanted to talk about it, just not infront of Maggie.

"I could eat." Amelia just replied, and let Meredith get off by 'maybe later'.

"Ok, I'm going to order something." Meredith said and went into the kitchen and ordered food.

Meredith was just checking on her kids when the food arrivied. Amelia succesfully removed herself from the couch without waking Maggie and went up to get the food.

Meredith just stepping into the kitchen as Amelia put the food on the kitchen counter. "So is it later now?" Amelia asked.

"Fine... I'll tell you... But just be prepared. I'm a horrible sister..." She said and then saw Amelia starting to panic. "Relax... I'm a horrible sister to Maggie."

Amelia relaxed again and then she asked "So... is it DeLuca?"

"No..." Was all Meredith said.

"Who then? She hasn't been with anyone else since she came here, has she?" Amelia was a bit confused now.

"Not to my knowledge..." Meredith replied.

Amelia suddenly came to think about who it could be. "Wait! It's Riggs isn't it? I thought you hated him."

"I wish I did." Meredith said thinking how much easier everything would be if she had just continued hating him.

"Oh you really like him. When did this happen?" The way Meredith said 'I wish I did' showed how much she liked him.

"Before your wedding. We were fighting, and next thing I knew we were having sex..." Meredith said and her mind wondered off thinking about that night.

"That good?" Amelia asked with a smirk.

"Excuse me?" Meredith said.

"The sex was so good that you stop talking when you think about it." Amelia clarified.

"Shut up." Meredith said. She could feel how red her cheeks were from embarrasment and the way Amelia was smiling at her didn't exactly help. "Ok... yes, it was that good. We did it four times in my car that night."

"Seriously?" Amelia asked surprised, that was dirtier than she expected.

"Yeep..." She said and covered her face with her hands. "...I didn't think it would ever become more than that one night, so when Maggie told me that she liked him, I just decided to not tell her about it. Nothing has happened since that night."

"Nothing?"

"A lot of flirting, but that's it and now I've come to that point were I can't hold back anymore. We really like and understand eachother. I told him that we could go out for drinks tonight, and see if we even would enjoy an evening together. If we would, I would tell Maggie about us. I just figured that telling her about us before there is an us is unnescessary."

"What did he say when you stood him up?" Amelia asked.

"At first he thought that I was using Maggie as an excuse, which I've been doing for a long time, but I managed to convince him that I wasn't and we rescheduled for tomorrow."

"That's it?"

"We might have kissed a little bit too. But trust me when I say that it's the first time we've kissed since we slept together." Meredith said a bit defensive.

"Hey I'm not judging, that man is real eyecandy. That being said, you should tell Maggie."

"Should tell me what?" Meredith and Amelia were startled by Maggie's enterance.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Here you go! A pretty long chapter.**

Nathan was in the attendings lounge, ready to go home. He had seen Meredith jumping on an incoming trauma, so he was sure that she was going to cancel on him once a again, but he was crossing his fingers that she wouldn't.

*Ding*. He received a text message. It was from her. _"Got pulled into an unexpected surgery."_ He knew what that meant, and started to reply when he got another message. _"Should be done half past eight, meet you there?"_ This second message was a plesant surprise him.

He smiled as he erased his first reply and wrote another one. _"Sounds good. Can't wait_ _?_ _"_

Meredith waited nervously for his reply, his patient with her was going to run out sooner or later, but when she read his message she couldn't help but giggle a little.

"What's so funny?" Owen asked Meredith as he and Amelia entered the scrub room. Meredith put her phone away.

"She has a date tonight." Amelia quickly replied.

"Really? With whom?" Owen was curious. He cared about Meredith.

"Shut up." Meredith said as she finished scrubbing and entered the OR.

"Seriously Amelia, who is it?" Owen asked.

"I'll tell you if you promise that you won't get mad at anyone, because she's happy."

"Why would I be mad?" He asked, and Amelia gave him a knowing look. "Oh, it's Nathan isn't it?" Amelia nodded. "I'll try to be nice about it." He finally said.

"You don't have to like it, just don't mess with Mer's or Riggs' minds, they seem good together." Amelia said and went into the OR. Owen just stared into thin air for a second, before he joined Meredith and Amelia.

He was sitting at the bar, when he felt a familiar touch on his back. "Hey, how did it go?" He asked when he turned around and saw the face that made his day a little better everytime he saw it. She sat down next to him before she replied.

"It looked like the patient was a goneer, but he's ok now." She said with a *sigh*. She was clearly tired, but she didn't want to cancel on him again.

"Luckily he had an extraordinary suregeon by his side." He flirted with her.

She knew that in these circumstances, she could actually allow herself to flirt back or at least accept his comment, but the fact that she even wanted to scared her, so she just replied; "Yeah, thank god that Owen and Amelia were there."

First he just looked at her, slightly annoyed with her answer, but then he said. "FYI; not accepting my compliments won't stop them coming."

"Sorry, thanks." She knew that it wasn't fair to treat him like that.

"So what do you want to drink?" He asked trying the change the topic and lighten things up.

"A glass of wine would be nice." She said, since tonight wasn't about the drink and getting drunk, but it was about the two of them, whatever they were.

"Keeping it classy, I like it." He said and she offered him a small smile. "Two glasses of your best wine." He said to the bartender.

"You do realise I would have settled for the second best wine, right?" She said joking.

"Only the best for my lady." He said with a wink as he got the two glasses from the bartender. He gave her one.

She decided to let that one go without a reply eventhough she thought him calling her his lady was way to early. She sipped on her wine. "This is actually really good wine."

"I know right? It's surprisingly good."

"Yeah." She said.

There was a moment of silence between them. They just sat there looking at eachother, enjoying the chance they had to be with eachother without any of their family, friends and collegues. Both of them realised that the feelings for eachother were growing for every minute they spent together.

"Mer?" He broke the silence.

"Yes"

"I've been thinking about said the other day." He looked more serious now than before.

"What?" She wasn't sure what conversation he was refeering to.

"About how you don't know me, and I get what you mean. I know more about you than you do about me." She just nodded, assuming that he wasn't done talking. "I was born in New Zealand 40 years ago. I'm the youngest out of three. Two brothers, twins actually. I was 15 years old when my dad got repositioned and we had to move to the states. My brothers stayed in New Zealand since they were already in college. A few years later my parents moved back and I stayed here. I was in med school at that point, and I really enjoyed living here."

"Do you go home a lot?" She asked curious about his relationship with his family and home.

"I try to go home at least once a year, I miss my family terribly, especially my nieces and newphews." He said not only because that was the truth, but also because he wanted Meredith to know that he liked children.

"Sounds like you have a better relationship with your family than I do. I thought I was an only child until a couple of years ago." She said first with a laugh, but thinking about her family made her serious.

"How's that possible?" He asked and grabbed her hand as he noticed that this wasn't a pleasant topic for her.

"My family mess is a long and depressing story, and to be honest I really don't want tonight to be depressing, but I'll give you a short version." He smiled when she said that she didn't want tonight to be depressing. "I had three sisters. Maggie, Lexie and Molly. Maggie, obviously is my mother's and Richard's love child. She was put up for adoption and no one knew about her, not even Richard. Lexie and Molly are my dad's daugthers. Lexie started as an intern here, that's how I met her. I hated her at first, but I grew to love her. She died in the same plane crash where Arizona lost her leg." She said was quickly continued to Molly, because she didn't want questions about Lexie. "I never really had a relationship with Molly. Mom passed away a couple of years ago, so I don't have her anymore, and my dad blames me for his wife's death, as she was threated here, so he doesn't want anything to do with me."

He didn't know how to react to everything she had just told him, all he could think was; "You're amazing."

"Excuse me?" She didn't understand why he said this right now.

"You've been through so much, but still you're standing here strong, with your own beautiful family, a successful carrier and you manage to look flawless everyday." His compliments gave her a warm feeling inside.

"Thanks, but you've never seen my kids." She stated.

"Don't need to see them to know they're beautiful, they're your kids. That being said, I wouldn't mind seeing them." He said.

"Do you want to see a picture of them?" She asked carefully, she wasn't sure she wanted him to meet her kids, but showing him a picture wasn't going to hurt anyone.

"Yes."

"Ok, let me see if I've a picture of all three looking at the camera at the same time." He could see that she was scrolling through her pictures. "Here they are" She said and gave him the phone. "Zola is seven, Bailey is five and Ellis is one." She said as she pointed at each of them.

"I want to ask something, but I really don't want to be rude, I'm not judging I swear."

"Shoot, I'm not that easily offended."

"Are they all Derek's children?" She just looked at him with a questioning look, he clearified his question. "Zola clearly isn't a full biological sibling to the other ones, and you said that Ellis is one years old."

"Zola is adopted, Ellis was concieved the morning of the day that Derek died. That's probably too much information, but you asked." Maybe she was a bit offended, but she knew he only asked because he wanted to know her better.

"I feel like I touched a nerve, sorry." He apologised.

"Oh god." She said and he thought he had ruined his chances.

"What?" He asked.

"Arizona is here with..." She said and pointed behind him, when he looked she continued "...with Minnick?"

He turned back, and said "Yes they're a thing, and don't worry. Robbins knows about us, so we don't have to hide."

"Ok..." She said, before realising what he had just told her. "Wait what? You told her?"

"Yes, we bonded over secret romances." He said calmly and she just rolled her eyes in response.

As soon as Arizona noticed Meredith and Nathan, she knew that the last thing Nathan would want was someone to interrupt their date, so she just greeted them with a small wave, which they appricieated. She could wait until tomorrow for details.

Meredith's focus was now back to Nathan. "How's it going at your frat house?" He asked and threw a peanut into his mouth.

"You're calling my home a frat house?" She asked.

"You're telling me it isn't?" He said and leaned in on the table.

"Well, they're great babysitters, and if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be able to do this."

"What is this?" He was still mocking her denial of the fact that they were on a date.

"This is drinks with a friend."

"Friend?" He asked as he sipped his wine.

"It's an update from collegue isn't it?" She said with those sparkly eyes.

"It is indeed." He decided to let the date thing go, she wasn't going to admit it now anyways. They talked about everything and nothing until they realised what time it was.

"This has been nice Nathan, but I think I want to head home now. I'm really tired and I've an early surgery."

"Sure, let me give you a ride home."

"You don't have to do that."

"I want to."

"Thanks." She said and they left the resturant.

He parked his car outside her house. "Do you hate me?" He asked, both still sitting in the car.

"What?" She didn't follow his question.

"I was just wondering what you were going to tell Maggie about us." He really did want to know. He thought the date went well, but Meredith was kind of unpredictable, so he didn't want to get his hopes up.

"Uhm... I told her last night." She said, leaned in and kissed him.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: This is the final chapter.**

 _"_ _What is it, Mer? You're scaring me." Maggie said and joined her two sisters."Tell me."_

 _"_ _Promise you will let speak until I'm finished?" Meredith asked Maggie._

 _"_ _Ok..."Maggie replied hesitantly._

 _"_ _A couple of days before Amelia's wedding I slept with Riggs. I didn't think it would ever be more than that one night, but I started to like him more and more. Then you told me that you liked him, so I told him that we were done, and nothing was going to happen between us again. We've kept our distance for months now, but I can hold back anymore and neither can he. I was going to go out for drinks with him tonight, because I wanted to make sure that we were more than that one night, before I told you about us, but well..."Meredith said, but got interrupted by Maggie. Maggie couldn't keep quiet anymore._

 _"_ _Are you kidding me Mer? Why? Why did you have to go after him of all guys?" Maggie clearly wasn't happy about the situation. "Why didn't you tell me rightaway instead of letting me make a fool out of myself?"_

 _"_ _I didn't plan on it." Meredith tried to defend herself._

 _"_ _I can't. I just can't." Maggie said and turned to go upstairs to her room._

 _"_ _Wait Maggie." Amelia tried to stop her, but she left. "I'll go and talk to her." Amelia said to Meredith._

 _"_ _Thanks." Meredith said to Amelia._

 _A while later Amelia came downstairs. She told Meredith that Maggie was calmer now, but that Maggie wasn't up for talking to Meredith tonight._

 _When Maggie and Meredith finally had an adult conversation about Nathan, It turned out that Maggie was okay with Meredith and Nathan going out, she was over him and couldn't stand in the way of her sister's happines. That being said, she would need some time to digest it and get used to the thought._

"So she's ok?" He said with a hopeful smile as he broke their kiss.

"No, but she will be." Meredith replied as leaned in for another kiss.

"So..." He broke the kiss again.

"So what?" This time Meredith seemed annoyed with him.

"Does that mean that we're a couple now?" He asked carefully.

"I guess it does." She said. She hadn't thought about it until now. As soon as she said yes, he unbuckled his belt, moved closer to Meredith and they made out. He started to unbotton her shirt, but this time she broke the kiss when she said; "We're so not doing this in a car again."

"You sure about that? It was pretty great." He said while kissing her neck. She tried to stop him, but at the same time she didn't want him to stop.

"I still prefer a bed." She managed to slip out.

"Let us go inside then." He said still kissing and undressing her.

"I don't think we should rub it in Maggie's face right away." Meredith said.

"My place?" He had an idea how they could avoid Maggie.

"Screw it..." Meredith said and grabbed her phone.

"What are you doing?" He asked her and stopped.

"Texting Amelia..." She said when they heard the text message audio. Meredith read the text out loud. "...Maggie was called into work, she won't be back until tomorrow."

"Thank god." He said and they were both quick to leave the car and head inside. Meredith tried to dress as good as she could before entering the house.

She was holding his hand, dragging him inside. They met Amelia in the living room.

"Riggs." Amelia greeted him.

"Shepherd." He greeted back.

"God! You two are like teenagers." Amelia said when she noticed how Meredith's shirt was buttoned and the lipstick on his face.

"Shut up or go and sort out your mess with your husband." Meredith said as they went upstairs.

"Ouch." Nathan said, thinking that Meredith was being harsh on her sister.

"Point taken." Amelia said and thought about that maybe Meredith was right, maybe she should go back to Owen.

As soon as the door into Meredith's bedroom was closed all the clothes were shattered around the room, and they enjoyed their first night together as a couple.

 **AN: Thank you for reading this fic, I hope you enjoyed it. You're always welcome to send me prompts :)**


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